Ok I said I wouldn’t write about the award winners this year but China and Brazil left me no choice!

The country of China won its 1st Press Grand Prix! Unfathomable, yes…but well deserved. The piece “Heaven and Hell” tells a wonderful story and is executed impeccably. What can I say, it passed the test of making me inspired, jealous, mad, all at the same time. Well done China and congratz on your 1st Grand Prix.

Brazil continued their dominance with 20 Press Lions too! A true testament to their undying commitment to the craft of storytelling and design. Well done!

Why is this amazing? And why should we care?
Consider this fact: there were almost 6,000 entries this year in the press category and only 10 Gold awards given out. That makes winning anything in this competition incredible! Titanium is cool, but give me some good old fashion ‘smart’ print any day of the week.

Day 1 is officially in the books. Mauro and I arrived safely in Cannes and checked into The Martinez Hotel. At 7:40 pm we met with Pharrell Williams in the bar at the Martinez to discuss partnership opportunities with DOJO and his new venture I AM OTHER. If you haven’t heard about Pharrell’s company we urge you to read about it. It’s pretty cool and could pioneer a new way for recording artists to market themselves. Afterwards, we had dinner with the executive producers of HSI then walked down La Croisette to the Carlton Hotel. There we met and talked with everyone from Bob Scarpelli (Chairman of Titanium) to David Droga. The night ended in the famed Gutter Bar (nuff said).

Note: Everywhere we go people talked about the work that DOJO is doing. It makes me and Mauro feel proud to be here representing.

Keeping up with the great tradition of being totally untraditional, we just launched the first ever social media platform for the biggest game in the world, Call of Duty. To unveil this epic new service, we partnered with goFILM director Jeff Tomsic, fresh off his Sundance Film Festival Debut, to create an intro film unlike anything you’ve seen before. Led by theLEGENDofKARL, this massive undertaking of delivering the endless breadth of offerings promises to inform and have you laughing so hard you’ll pee someone else’s pants. Enjoy!

We just launched a cool new experience for AT&T’s Android devices. JustUs is a fun way to keep in touch with five of your favorite contacts through rich, colorful themes that alert you of any social activity, messages or photos coming from those contacts. Now messages appear right on your phone in the form of unique personalities-from cartoon superheroes, to colorful jellyfish swimming in the ocean, to the classic dog meets mailman. Your friends and family are a bunch of characters in real life. It’s time they become characters in the digital world. Hats off to AT&T for this first of its kind social networking application.

According to AdAge, Grupo ABC was the fastest growing among the top 20 communications groups in the world in 2010 and has jumped from number 20 to number 19. Check out AdAge’s Top 50 Agency Companies Ranking here.

The Bay Area is the best place to live, play and create. And it’s also an incredible place to be recognized by the strong creative community that resides here. Such was the case on Saturday night at the 2011 SF Bay Area Addy® Awards. Our LG dLite “Brilliant Together” campaign took home a gold and four silvers, while we took home a growing sense of pride towards being a member of this powerfully creative corner of the world.

Call of Duty: Black Ops is the world’s biggest video game. So when Activision asked us to promote the First Strike Downloadable Content Pack, we wanted to celebrate this massive multiplayer world and the competition that fuels it. Our film is set to the throwback 80’s hit “Wind of Change” by the Scorpions. Using the map Berlin Wall as our stage, we tell the classic story of East versus West, of soldiers divided by politics, but united by their love of play, flamethrowers and singing duets. Turn it up and enjoy.